Gringo Tour 08/09 - Part 10

We got up early enough so we could check out by the check out time. A lot of US hotels have late check in (sometimes 4pm...) but usually always have late check out (most are midday) which is so much better than Oz with 10am check outs... Did I mention that our Sheraton had a Starbucks in the lobby (damn them all to hell!!!! AGGHGH!). We avoided Starbucks and the expensive in-hotel breakfasts - checked out - walked to the airport and went back to the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in town for some breakfast and half-decent coffee (take that Starbucks!). I wasn't so sure about the clientele @ the Coffee Bean because it mostly consisted of hobos who would order a coffee and sit there all day long...

This was our last day in San Diego - but we had a full day of sight-seeing because we weren't flying to Las Vegas until 8:40pm with Southwest Airlines. Ant really wanted to check out the USS Midway - a decommissioned US Aircraft Carrier which was docked in San Diego bay and was turned into a quasi-museum. The entrance fee was $17USD which was a little cheap - but surprisingly it was worth it. You could check out (just about) every nook and cranny in the ship (probably excluding any highly sensitive classified equipment which I'm guessing would have been stripped out by the Navy before opening this thing up to the public).

When we boarded the ship - I was doing my Cher impression of "If U Could Turn Back Time" - but Ant corrected me saying there was a warship in that video... ohh. I didn't realise Ant was a ship spotter as well!

On the first floor of the ship - there was a bit of a museum to the Midway (which was in service from the second world war until the end of Gulf War I). It didn't look like it ever got into any trouble except when a Turkish ship collided with the Midway - killing a couple of sailors (due to some oxygen plant thingy on the ship exploding). You could also explore just about all the areas of the ship too - from grunt messes, to the high class officers messes to the laundry area to the quarters and so forth. Of course - all of the non-commissioned officers (ie: grunts) had sh##house accommodation (where I think a 4 ft munchkin would have problems fitting in the bunk bed) and as the ranks got more superior - so to the accommodation. The Ship's Captain had the bling-iest accommodation - with a big bedroom, study and bathroom.

On the deck of the ship - there were heaps of old decommissioned aircraft - including Seahawks and FA-18 Hornets (which are still in use in Australia...!). I got a pose-y shot on a missile (a la Dr Strangelove aka How I learned to Love the Bomb) and you got a pretty heck darn good view of San Diego from the ship (golly gosh).

We had a guided tour around the top of the ship (where there was the captain's deck (or is that star trek?), the aircraft landing control thingy and other stuff - but I had felt like throwing overboard some annoying kids who were little s##ts and kept flicking at all of the switches on the ship... grrr.

There were also a range of simulators on the first deck which simulated navy ships or fighter jets (which go upside down - yay!) but all had a steep price so we gave it a miss... There were also some ejector seats which you could sit in and watch "the Navy's funniest home videos" - with (I kid you not) - Kenny Loggins' Highway to the Danger Zone song playing... Yeh. Until next time...